Circuit for electric railways



F. W. SABOLD.

GIRUUIT FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

(No Model.)

No. 442,140. Patented Dec. 9, 1890.

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FnA/vnW. Jason: QiLMJ-D UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

FRANK \V. SABOLD, OF ALBANY, NEXY YORK.

CIRCUIT FOR ELECTRIC ,RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 442,140, dated December9, 1890.

Application filed September 22, 1890. Serial No. 365,770. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK \V. SABOLD, of the city and county of Albany,in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements inCircuits for Electric Railways, of which the following is aspecification.

It is a well-known fact that the earth a very few feet beneath itssurface offers no perceptible resistance to the flow of the electriccurrent, and for that reason it forms the best and cheapest knownconductor that can be used for the purpose of conducting electriccurrents.

My invention consists in combining with an overhead electric conductorthe rails of a railway, which are electrically connected with a seriesof metallic bars inserted into the ground adjacent to and in line withthe railway-tracks at distances apart that will not exceed the length ofan ordinary track-rail, so that a car equipped with the usual motor andconducting-wires will in its transit over said track effect a constantvariation in the length of the electric circuit, making the latterlonger or shorter, according to the direction in which the car is movingin respect to the generator, the coursepursued by the current from thedynamo or generator being through the overhead or trolley wire, downwardthrough the conducting-wires of the car to the track-rails, thence tothe metallic bars through the wires connecting said bars to thetrack-rails, then from said bars through the earth back to thegenerator, the earth alone being used to complete the circuit from themetallic bar nearest the point on the track where the car is at the timelocated to the dynamo or generator, regardless of the fact whether atthat time the 'ear is in motion or stationary. In electric railways asordinarily constructed a conducting wire is usually placed in electricalconnection by the side of or underneath the track-rails, so as to form acomplete metallic circuit through the entire system; but this is open tothe objection that it is both expensive to build and unreliable in use.

In the accompanying drawings, which are herein referred to and form partof this specification, Figure 1 is a plan view of a railway whichembodies my invention. Fig. 2 is an end view of the same; and Fig. 3 isan enlarged transverse section of the railway-tracks, showing the modeof forming electrical connections between said tracks and the earth.

As illustrated by the drawings, A indicates the overhead or trolleywires of an electric railwayof a com men and well-known construction,and B the track-rails of the same. Said wires and rails when consideredby themselves form no part of my invention.

C is a series of bars or other forms of metal or other material whichpossesses suitable electric conductivity, driven or otherwise insertedinto the ground in proximity to and substantially in line with thetracks B. Said bars are connected by means of wires or other electricalconductors D to the track-rails B, and said connections should be inelectric contact to insure a proper operation of the circuits. Theelectric current from the dynamo or generator is conducted to the motorin the car by means of the overhead wire in the usual manner, and fromthe motor the current passes through the car-wheels into the track-railsat the point whereon said carwheels at that timehave theirbearin g. Fromthe track-rails the current is conducted through the nearest conductor Dand bar 0 into the earth, which conducts the currrent back to thegenerator, and thereby the circuit is completed; and it is obvious thatthe point of contact of the car-wheels with the trackrails beingconstantly shifting by reason of the movement of the car 011 the tracksthe length of the circuit will be constantly correspondinglyincreased ordiminished, according to the direction in which the car is being moved,the increase in length occurring when the car is being moved away fromthe generator and the decrease when it is being moved in the oppositedirection, and it will be observed that the variations in the length ofthe circuit are produced automatically by the travel of the car.

I am aware that telegraph-lines have heretofore been constructed withelectric conductors inserted in the earth at points where the terminalsof the circuit were located; but in such cases the length of the circuithas not been variable automatically and required the manipulation ofswitches to vary the and thence into the track-rails,- a series ofelectric conductors fixed in the ground in proximity to the track-railsand connected to the latter by means of electric conductors, whereby aconstantly-varying length of the electriccircuit is automatic-Lilyeffected, substantially as specified.

FRANK \V. SABOLD.

Witnesses:

WM. I-I. LoW, S. B. BREWER.

